It was only luck that the damage caused when a Russian drone crashed on a 10-storey block of flats in Galati overnight Friday night wasn’t any worse.
But even this strategic resource of the lazy – luck – is about to be exhausted, something that can be easily seen from a simple analysis of trends: in the beginning, drone fragments that fell in Romania were scattered over wild areas. But over time, Russian drone debris began to be discovered near rural homes; even in someone’s back yard; and now directly on an apartment block in a big Romanian city.
With each such “step forward”, the risk of human casualties on Romania territory has increased naturally and exponentially.
The case in Galati has revived, as expected, debates about why it wasn’t shot down first.
The defense ministry explained what could and couldn’t be done as it has on previous occasions
Even if we admit that the reasoning of Army reps is correct – that fighter jets can’t just shoot drones in any conditions – it’s not enough. Because the underlying problem is completely different: since efficiently adapted anti-drone defense technologies already exist, how is it that Romania, a country on the border of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict hasn’t yet found the time and resources to install such systems at least in critical points?
What has Bucharest done, at least from 2024 and 2025, to defend people from the threat of Russian drones?
For example, how was it possible for Romania, which borders Ukraine, to move so slowly from the perspective of assimilating Kiev’s experience in the fight against Russian drones, as well as from rapidly importing technology that Kiev has developed in a lightning-fast short time and at a world-leading level?
Of course, the answer is partly obvious.
In the last three years, Romania has not quite stood still:
- The authorities have treated Russian disinformation and the penetration of the electoral system so superficially that we have reached the point that one of Moscow’s tools was almost elected president and would have presided over the Supreme Defense Council.
- The former government torpedoed the budget balance with such zeal that it forced the next government to resort to austerity measures although investing massively in civil and military defense is vital.
- More recently, precisely at a time when international crises are amplifying, the government was ousted and the political crisis is still ongoing weeks later.
- And against all this background, which distracts us from the real problems (including equipping the army with systems adapted to today’s threats), in Romania even the SAFE program has fallen victim to political revenge, being paraded around the Constitutional Court like a bear and being demonized, as if by Moscow or the pro-Russian political camp.
- Add to the above picture tireless efforts made by the extremists in Parliament to poison Romania’s bilateral relationship with Ukraine. And also promoting to the public and even laws which are key points on Moscow’s agenda.
Given the activity of the political class in the last at least three years, it cannot be surprising that even in mid-2026 Romania cannot hunt down Russian drones except by using a chainsaw to defend itself from mosquitoes. (scrambling F-16s to intercept them).
At least the shock in Galati should make us understand that we are living in a parallel universe to the real world in which we are condemned to live.
And perhaps the same shock in Galati will cause authorities to have a substantial change of attitude, in two areas.
- No more soothing words to the public! Because it is misleading and encourages a lack of genuine responsibility at an official level. It must be clearly acknowledged, at the highest level, that Romania is not safe from the Russian danger, that the war faced by the Ukrainian neighbors has various forms of manifestation, including a direct hit as Galati has categorically illustrated.
- And no more half-measures in the relationship with Moscow! Bucharest must send it clear signals of discouragement, via all relevant channels. Otherwise, day by day, the Russians will make the situation in which Romania finds itself today worse. In any case, it can be seen with the naked eye that Putin, desperate to get bogged down on the front in Ukraine amid the deterioration of the economic and social situation in Russia, tends to force regional destabilization. You can’t respond to new realities with old habits.
Let’s wish ourselves luck in the future, but let’s stop betting on luck working for us to face the world we live in.
PS: One more thing: the law that allows drones to be shot down was adopted after almost three years since the start of the war in Ukraine. The extremists in the Romanian Parliament opposed it with all their might, although the military experts incessantly asked for it.
Russian drone crashes into Romanian apartments, wounding two, starting fire
